HOBOKEN, N.J. – On the surface, the idea that parents should be allowed to choose where their children attend school seems as all-American as “baseball, hotdogs, apple pie and Chevrolet.”

But it’s not – far from it, in fact.

Despite having support from many conservatives and a growing number of liberals, school choice is one of the most controversial public policy ideas around. Just mentioning an aspect of school choice – such as charter schools, private school vouchers or cyberschools – to a staunch public school supporter carries significant health risks.

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Any discussions about school choice that aren’t knock-down, drag-out rhetorical events are likely to be stuffy, dry-as-dust debates held inside the ivory towers of academia and government.

Either way, the end result is too often the same: The debate about school choice becomes about how it will affect the status quo-obsessed Education Establishment instead of how it could help parents who urgently need new, quality educational options for their kids.

That’s why “The Ticket,” a new documentary from filmmaker and veteran newsman Bob Bowdon, is such a welcome addition to the school choice debate.

In “The Ticket,” Bowdon cuts through all the political noise and hyperbole by telling the stories of numerous families who have seen their children’s lives change for the better simply because they were allowed to escape their low-performing, government-run school in favor of something better.

The most moving of the stories in “The Ticket” involves an unidentified female high school student in Cleveland who is using that city’s voucher program to attend a private, Catholic school which is equipping her to escape a life of poverty and hopelessness.

“I live in the ghetto,” she says. “Every day, I see people on the streets, my age, doing drugs and just throwing their life away. Recently, this year, two of my friends have been shot and killed. One was shot at her own birthday party. And the other was shot (in) a drive-by shooting. It’s really sad.”

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The student credits Cleveland’s St. Martin de Porres High School – the high-performing private school she’s attending through the city’s voucher program – and her parents for helping her avoid a similar fate.

“Being where I am today is a miracle because not a lot kids will have this opportunity. … They don’t have the love and (nurturing) this school provides and my family provides,” she says.

Falling through the cracks

The recurring theme of “The Ticket” is that giving parents the freedom to choose the school that best fits their children’s needs can have a life-changing effect for students who are at risk of falling through the cracks of a traditional school.

That’s most evident when Bowdon visits 21^st Century Cyber Charter School in Pennsylvania, one of the 16 different Internet-based schools that’s been authorized by the state.

Kylene Ball, the school’s principal, explains that online learning allows students to move at their own pace. She says that unique feature benefits a range of students – from high-achievers who feel restrained in a traditional classroom to students who struggle in school academically.

Cyberschools also serve as a refuge for kids who are struggling socially or emotionally.

Some “kids pick (a cyberschool) … because they’ve been bullied or picked on at school and they’re just not comfortable at school anymore,” Ball says in the film.

While cyberschools are still in their infancy – and only available in a handful of states – “The Ticket” contends they are the school choice option “with the greatest potential to revolutionize learning” in the United States.

‘We’re going to save as many of them as we can’

Cyberschools may represent the future of school choice, but they have a long way to go to catch up with charter schools. The alternative public schools – which are typically managed by independent companies instead of government entities – are arguably the most popular and most successful form of school choice in the nation.

“The Ticket” takes viewers to the Rodney D. Joslin campus of Perspectives Charter School, a high-performing alternative public school in Chicago that’s giving hope and a future to inner city students who are starting out in life amidst soul-crushing poverty.

Perspectives Charter School CEO Rhonda Hopps tells Bowdon that thousands of families are turning to charter schools to escape the government-run Chicago Public Schools that are robbing children of an education, and therefore, their very future.

In the film, Hopps explains why she doesn’t have any tolerance for charter school critics.

“Fifty thousand parents have chosen to send their children to charter schools, and it is my responsibility to make sure they get the best education possible,” Hopps says. “I’m not willing to write-off these children’s lives while politicians and everybody else figures out what to do with Chicago Public Schools. They’re here, they’re here to stay and we’re going to save as many of them as we can.”

Hopps notes that while Chicago’s traditional schools may have problems with student attendance, Perspectives students travel through crime-ridden communities everyday just to attend classes.

“The children really have to navigate a storm to get to school. But our attendance rates are 93, 94, 95 percent because students want to come to school. They know it’s a safe place where they’re going to be able to learn and grow as individuals, so they fight their way to get there,” Hopps says.

Bowdon interviews an unidentified Perspectives graduate who agrees that the school is saving lives.

“(The school) teaches self-discipline – which is something a lot of kids need – and hope,” the unidentified male says. “Perspectives gives students hope and that’s something every kid needs. I believe the scariest thing is a kid walking down the street without hope.”

Film debuts in time for National School Choice Week

All told, “The Ticket” – which was filmed in conjunction with National School Choice Week’s 2013 whistle-stop tour – chronicles school choice success stories in seven major U.S. cities.

The 37-minute film spotlights a homeschooling family in Topeka, Kansas, private school voucher students in Cleveland and Rochester (New York), and parent activists in Los Angeles who converted a chronically failing elementary school into a charter school using California’s “parent trigger” law.

Bowdon will be screening “The Ticket” all across the country in support of this year’s National School Choice Week, which runs from Jan. 26 through Feb. 1. The film is available through theticketfilm.com.

Bowdon, whose day job involves managing choicemedia.tv, says that while school choice supporters have made a lot of progress in recent years, there’s still much left to be done.

“I like to describe school choice as a barge that needs to turn 180 degrees, but has turned only three or four degrees in our direction,” he says.

Given that the film is well-made and filled with powerful testimonies, “The Ticket” might succeed in turning the “school choice” barge a few more degrees in the right direction.